the Warriors probably are facing a Carl Landry/Jarrett Jack either-or situation this summer…

-Counting Landry’s player-option for $4M (a salary the GSWs would presumably have to increase if he opts-out and they bid to retain him), the Warriors have committed about $74M to 12 players next season.

That’s already ABOVE the presumed luxury-tax line of anywhere from $70M to $73M for next season (mostly thanks to the combined $58M salaries of five players–Bogut, David Lee, Andris Biedrins, Richard Jefferson and Steph Curry–next season).

And that doesn’t include unrestricted free agent Jarrett Jack, whose starting asking price is expected to be above $5M, the mid-level exception. (We’ll see what he gets, but everybody I talk to assumes the bidding STARTS at $5M in the first year of any multi-year offer.)

So by retaining just one of the two pending/potential key free agents, the Warriors would already go above the luxury-tax line, and remember, GSW ownership scrupulously avoided that this season by giving away Jeremy Tyler and Charles Jenkins.

I think Joe Lacob and his partners would be willing to pay the luxury tax, but it’d be only after very, very, very careful consideration .

And then, I don’t think they’d go over the $4M apron–if you go more than $4M over the lux-tax line, you start incurring much more serious restrictions.

So I just read off of MTII's twitter that Bazemore is playing the point guard position in summer league. I love the idea of it, but I'm not sure how practical it would be. The guy is a natural 2 and I'm not sure how good he'd be running the team. We'll see though, only time will tell. This tells me though, that we're preparing for Jack's departure. If he leaves I totally expect him to have standing O's whenever he comes back to the roaracle.

Don't understand why people would choose Landry over jack. Jj should and could have easily won the 6th man of the year award and people want don't think he's worth the money? I mean he is backing up steph and still managing to close out games which tells you his value. Jack has always been a solid point and I don't think the warriors should let him go. Landry otoh, even tho u love his game, I think there are a plethora of garbage guys under the rim.

If I could, I would keep both, but in a choose one only scenario, jarrett is the obvious choice to me. We can select a hustle guy from the draft or from other free agents around the league.

JebronLames wrote:Don't understand why people would choose Landry over jack. Jj should and could have easily won the 6th man of the year award and people want don't think he's worth the money? I mean he is backing up steph and still managing to close out games which tells you his value. Jack has always been a solid point and I don't think the warriors should let him go. Landry otoh, even tho u love his game, I think there are a plethora of garbage guys under the rim.

If I could, I would keep both, but in a choose one only scenario, jarrett is the obvious choice to me. We can select a hustle guy from the draft or from other free agents around the league.

I think that good back-up PG is easier to find than PF. So i choose Landry.

JebronLames wrote:Don't understand why people would choose Landry over jack. Jj should and could have easily won the 6th man of the year award and people want don't think he's worth the money? I mean he is backing up steph and still managing to close out games which tells you his value. Jack has always been a solid point and I don't think the warriors should let him go. Landry otoh, even tho u love his game, I think there are a plethora of garbage guys under the rim.

If I could, I would keep both, but in a choose one only scenario, jarrett is the obvious choice to me. We can select a hustle guy from the draft or from other free agents around the league.

Jack definitely was a big part of this season, and I want him back too but there's other things we have to consider. When you talk about Jack closing out games, it's not that he didn't deserve it, but it also speaks to how not ready Barnes was to finish 4th quarters. This will not probably be the case next year assuming that Barnes will improve and Jackson will have enough trust in him to close out games. I was one of the biggest supporters of Jack the entire season, but this does make him a little more expendable. I also just mentioned that Bazemore will be playing PG in summer league, and although I doubt he will be able to duplicate what Jack has done for us on and off the court, I am a little excited to see what Bazemore can offer the team.

I know we tend to focus on the offensive side in terms of who we should keep, but let me remind people that Jack was an excellent defender with good size and toughness. He was able to guard 1s and 2s and every time he was in the game I always felt that the dubs were able to play tougher defense. Landry is a smaller 4 who plays bigger but his size was made obvious on defense as he couldn't match up well with traditional4s. He's more of a rebounder garbage man.

JebronLames wrote:I know we tend to focus on the offensive side in terms of who we should keep, but let me remind people that Jack was an excellent defender with good size and toughness. He was able to guard 1s and 2s and every time he was in the game I always felt that the dubs were able to play tougher defense. Landry is a smaller 4 who plays bigger but his size was made obvious on defense as he couldn't match up well with traditional4s. He's more of a rebounder garbage man.

Jack has the ability to be an excellent defender, thats not saying that he was. When I first heard of the trade for Jack, I was ecstatic. Finally, we get a tough defender in the backcourt after years of watching Richardson, Ellis and Curry. He looked good in the first couple of games, but as the season went on, his defense stunk. Just a lazy defender who gets beat all the time and doesn't try to recover (much like Monta). Bigger two guards were going right past him with ease. His value shifted from being a defensive, tough player to instant offense off the bench. He knew that if he didn't show that he can score that he wasn't going to get a big contract and thats what he's looking for now.

Jack by all metrics was a great defender this year. 13th in defensive efficiency without Bogut for most of the year. Unless you think our Landry Lee combo was the reason for our above average defense, it was probably the wings.

There's a reason Bazemore is practicing point guard a lot. The Warriors have reacquired Rush. His scoring, defense, and rebounding blows Jack out of the water. But Jack handles. That's the ONLY hold up here. The small, 3-guard lineup worked for the Warriors due to Thompson's size. If Rush could orchestrate the offense, Jack would not be a topic. But since Curry needs protection, Jack has value here. He'll probably get the MLE for 3 years. You guys trippin about the Warriors losing him are exaggerating. He's not THAT good, but he fills a need here and has a definitive role.

Unless the Dubs can trade for Rondo, they'll keep Jack. They need a ball-handler to put Curry in the floppy set, and that point needs to be able to guard cause Curry gets torched by lightening fast guards.

Carl Landry says he's between a rock and a hard place about whether to opt out. Really, his decision is already...made. He's opting out.

No, he wouldn't say it. In fact, he pointed out how with him it's still possible. But the reality is he has to opt out. It's the smart move. The few people I've talked to with the Warriors expect him to do just that. One even acknowledged if they were Landry, they would opt out, too.

Here are three good reasons why it would be a shock if he plays out the last year of his deal for $4 million:

* No player wants to play on a one-year deal if they don’t have to. With no long-term security, the risk of injury is too great. Most players would rather a multi-year deal at a lower rate than a one-year deal at a slightly higher rate

* This year is a much better market for Landry. If he plays one year and becomes a free agent in 2014, he could have to wait in line behind other power forwards such as Chris Bosh, Dirk Nowitzki, Zach Randolph, Pau Gasol, Andrea Bargnani, Amar’e Stoudemore, Derrick Favors, Larry Sanders, Greg Monroe and Ed Davis

* Playing the final year of his contract eliminates the possibility of the payday he’s been looking for. Landry had a solid year for the Warriors. He fizzled after a hot start, but bounced back well in the playoffs. NBA teams are known for throwing big money around. How could Landry not even test the waters when a three-year, $15 to $20 million could be out there?

With that said, doesn't mean Landry isn't torn. As the crowd of some 6,000 people begged for him to flex (as he does on three-point plays), it was clear he loves it here. This is a tough time for Landry because opting out makes it very real that his days with Warriors may be over.

My personal take is that Landry should opt out for his own good. I do think there will be teams willing to give him 2-3 yr deals. But 4 mill this year is also a good deal for him. Reggie Evans is making 1.6 this year and 1.7 next. I consider him a better defender and rebounder than Landry but less skilled offensively. And at 1/3 the price, I could def see him filling the dubs needs. Solid defense and rebounding so that we can get 2nd shot attempts.

Landrys offensive skills aren't that great IMO. He settled for 18ft jumpers far too many times and his FG% from there stunk, but it didn't make him shoot it any less.

Reggie Evans is awful. Most of his rebounds become turnovers and he ruins offensive spacing. And we are already the best defensive rebounding team in the league, it would be picking up a player that doesn't help a need. It's redundancy. We need to improve on our teams faults, not their strengths.